Our Goals

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Boulder's Climate Commitment

For our community, climate action is about resilience and transformation: we need to adapt to the climate changes that are already in motion, as well as reduce the emissions-heavy activities that drive future climate change. We face a great challenge but also a great opportunity to make Boulder better-- to create a healthier, safer and more prosperous community. We need your help to make it happen!

The strategic framework laid out in the Climate Commitment guides the city's climate work in three action areas: energy, ecosystems and resources. Rising to the climate challenge will require long-term action in all three area and work is underway! Learn more on the Climate Commitment page.

Take Action

Looking to take action on climate in your household? These four actions—maximizing your energy efficiency, powering your life with renewable energy, electrifying your heating and cooling and clean transportation-- really add up and make a difference. Ready to make a move? We have resources to help!

We also have resources to help you take action no matter what assets you have or where you are in your climate journey!

Climate Accountability Litigation

Climate change affects fragile high-altitude ecosystems and hits at the heart of these communities’ local economies, affecting roads and bridges, parks and forests, buildings, farming and agriculture, the ski industry, and public open space. Adapting to such a wide range of impacts requires local governments to undertake unprecedented levels of planning and spending. Over the next three decades, these communities will face at least one hundred million dollars in costs to deal with the impacts of climate change caused by the use of fossil fuel products like those made and sold by Suncor and Exxon.

Partnerships

The city's Legislative Agenda includes several items related to climate and energy. The city works with partners across the state, region and globe to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase use of renewables.

Did you know? Boulder is a part of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA), a global collaboration of 20 cities who are committed to cutting emissions by 80 percent or more by 2050 or sooner. Being a part of this cohort allows Boulder to collaborate and share lessons in deep carbon reduction best practices with other progressive cities around the world.

Visit Boulder's profile on the CNCA website to get a snapshot of Boulder's emissions reduction targets as well as other sustainability initiatives.

Resources

Boulder Building Performance: An ordinance to reduce energy use and improve the quality of Boulder’s commercial and industrial building stock by requiring rating and reporting (R&R) and energy efficiency measures.

Boulder Energy Challenge: A grant program to foster innovative solutions from the community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Boulder's Energy Future: The city's long-term effort to create a municipal electric utility in order to democratize, decarbonize and decentralize electricity in Boulder.

Boulder Solar Tool: An interactive online tool that illustrates the solar potential of individual buildings and supports community investments in solar power.

CU Energy Green Team: A collaborative program with the University of Colorado Environmental Center to foster peer-to-peer education in student-heavy neighborhoods about energy efficiency and Boulder's energy goals.

Boulder launched its first formal climate action efforts in 2002. Since that time, the city has been at the forefront of innovation in working to reduce climate impacts: adopting the Climate Action Plan tax, the country's first voter approved tax dedicated to addressing climate change, developing a national model for delivering energy efficiency services, enacting the country’s most stringent energy code for new buildings and much more.

Boulder's Climate Action Plan, often referred to as the CAP, was Boulder's first phase of climate action, and featured a set of aggressive, city-funded programs and services designed to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. As a result of CAP-funded programs, many of which exist today, Boulder avoided more than 50,000 metric tons of emissions between 2007 and 2015, keeping our community emissions fairly constant despite growth in population, jobs and economic activity.

In Dec. 2016, Boulder City Council adopted the Climate Commitment and its associated goals of an 80 percent reduction in community greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2050; 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030; and 80 percent reduction in organization greenhouse gas emissions below 2008 levels by 2030. The goals and their related sub-milestones are the city’s first since the expiration of the city’s previous climate action goal in 2012.